Are you interested in counting birds? Welcome to Bristol Bay Field Notes. I’m Rob MacDonald, a Wildlife Biologist with the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge.

There are four Public Bird Counts that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service coordinates in the Dillingham area: the World Bird Count in October; the Christmas Bird Count in December; the Great Backyard Bird Count in February; and the North American Migration Count in May.

In this edition of Bristol Bay Field Notes, I’m just going to talk about the upcoming World Bird Count.

The World Bird Count was established by the Japanese telephone cooperative Nippon Telephone and Telegraph to promote environmental awareness through birding and the appreciation of nature. This year will be the 8th year the World Bird Count has run.

Through the World Bird Count, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph is working hard to contribute to the conservation of birds and bird habitats. They do this by donating 1,000 Japanese yen, or about 9 U.S. dollars, to BirdLife International for each species that is reported in the World Bird Count.

Since the count began in 1995, there has been a worldwide average of 5,299 bird species counted between 82 countries and 123,964 people. In Dillingham, we have averaged 58 bird species counted by 28 people. That’s a lot of birds and a lot of people involved in bird conservation efforts.

Participation in the World Bird Count is fairly simple. Just record all birds species seen and heard at any time from October 1st to the 31st and let me know what you observed. You can count for any length of time from one single birding event the whole month up to recording birds every day of the month and any amount of effort in between.

There are about 30 people in Dillingham who participate in the local public bird counts each year, but we are always looking for new individuals to get involved. If you are interested, please call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Togiak National Wildlife Refuge at 842-1063.

For Field Notes, I’m Rob MacDonald.